Seven Point is Teaching Crown Heights How to Eat (and Drink) Australian

While full blown restaurants haven’t caught quite as much traction in Brooklyn (remember the Sunburnt Calf and Sheep Station?), Australia has proved massively influential on our coffee culture, uprooting the latte with flat whites at spots like Brunswick, Milk Bar, Dub Pies, Bluestone Lane and Toby’s Estate, and begetting a city fanatically in thrall to avocado toast.

And with the recent debut of Seven Point Espresso, the Aussie brekkie movement has officially expanded to the outer edges of Crown Heights. A joint venture between Phil Gijsbers, a successful, Melbourne-based café owner, and Lee Tryhorn, a local, homesick expat, the duo’s aim was to create a singular, congenial gathering hub, where coffee, food and hospitality was held in equally high regard.

Stools are assembled around the drinks station, encouraging patrons to chat with their winsomely accented baritas, as they swirl foam hearts atop saucers of “Magic” (referring to the ideal ratio of espresso and milk), or brew Prana Chai tea leaves to order, steeping them with honey and assorted spices.

There’s also “all day brunch” service available at the surrounding tables, featuring a substantial menu that includes free-range eggs, Fleisher’s thick-cut bacon BLT’s, stacks of pikelets (a type of crumbly pancake) layered with berries, mascarpone and housemade fragments of honeycomb, a requisite assortment of toasties (pressed sandwiches such as manchego and leek lacquered with mango chutney) and open-faced planks of Bien Cuit’s nubbly sunflower rye, surmounted with micro greens and garlic-thyme mushrooms.

Of course, for the total Down Under (not to mention incontrovertibly Brooklyn) experience, it’s hard not to be waylaid by the promised avo smash. Although instead of simply offering up a paltry smear with sea salt, Seven Point’s version includes an entire serving of fruit, bolstered with sweet green peas, spears of mint and fat cubes of briny feta. Being that we’ve reached peak avocado toast inflation, it also bears noting that it’s $12, not $21 — well worth going on a walkabout to Crown Heights for.